


Soviet Kitsch

by Wonderlandleighleigh



Series: Just This Once, Everybody Lives [11]
Category: Chuck (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: AU, F/M, Gen, Kidfic, post Endgame AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-13 01:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20166058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wonderlandleighleigh/pseuds/Wonderlandleighleigh
Summary: Natasha enlists Agent 13 and the CAT Squad to help her retrieve something important from a defunct Soviet Hydra base in Siberia that will change everybody's lives.





	Soviet Kitsch

Zondra Rizzo is stealthy to a point. 

She’s tall and a little broad in the shoulders, so the shadowy parts of espionage have never been her forte, and when you’re sharing a bed with a man whose senses are turned up to 11, it’s even harder to sneak around.

She gets dressed and packs her bag, and manages to do it all without waking him until she sits on the edge of the bed to pull on her boots. 

“Goin out for bagels?” Steve asks, his voice thick with sleep. 

Zondra huffs out an amused breath and turns to crawl over to him, still keeping her shoes off the bed. “Work.” 

Steve groans softly and tries to pull her closer. “Seriously? You just got back.” 

“Yeah, but they got another one for me,” Zondra says, grinning as she lets him tug her into his arms. “I’ll be back in a few days.” 

“I’m holding you to that, Agent Rizzo.” 

“I know.” She pecks his lips and then gets to her feet, bending down to tighten her boots. “Stay outta trouble while I’m gone.” 

Steve snorts. “I don’t get into trouble no more,” he tells her with his thick Brooklyn accent. “I got my garden and my daughter and I’m retired.” 

“Nobody believes that old man so tired act,” Zondra tells him as she settles her gun in the holster at her back.

He gets to his feet and steps closer to her, rubbing her arms. “Be safe out there.” 

“Uh-huh,” Zondra teases. “This coming from a man who talks about parachutes like they’re the devil’s escape route.” 

Steve grins and ducks his head, gazing up into her eyes. “Zondra.” 

“Yes, can I help you?” she asks, grinning playfully as she grabs her jacket.

He pauses for just a moment, before taking a breath. “I love you.” 

She stares at him for a long moment, before shaking her head. “Sap.” She grabs her go bag and checks it one last time. 

“You don’t love me back?” Steve asks, lifting an eyebrow, his lips quirked into a slightly nervous grin. 

“I do,” she tells him. She kisses him softly before heading for the door. “But that doesn’t mean you’re not a sap.” 

She walks out the door, knowing that he’s still standing there in his undershorts, grinning like an idiot. 

She peeks into Maggie’s room quickly, finding the little girl still fast asleep in her bed. Zondra sneaks over to the little drawing desk in the corner, using a piece of white construction paper and a big red Crayola marker, drawing a big heart on it, writing her name below it, and leaving it on Maggie’s nightstand.

She’s gone after that; out of the building and hopping into a cab, headed for work in the early dawn.

***** 

She meets them in DC, at a coffee shop of all places. It’s busy, but they score a table, and Zondra sits down, glancing at the other women sitting with her. 

Natasha Romanoff.

Sarah Walker.

Carina Miller.

Sharon Carter. 

Since the snap was reversed, things at work have been slightly more wild than usual. And since Zondra is a CIA officer, that’s really saying something. 

The US Intelligence community made a decision: To take the best agents still in play, and give them the jobs no one wants. The fact that all of their best agents happen to be women is mostly coincidence. 

Though Carina has commented that it’s excessively predictable.

“Okay, ladies,” Zondra grins. “What’s the order of the day?” 

“Cafe mocha,” Sharon says automatically, giving them all an amused grin as she sips her drink. 

“And an old Hydra base in Siberia,” Natasha adds, handing out folders to each of them. “Hill got a call from Nakia, who was scoping it out for some black market vibranium. It’s been defunct for fifteen years, but there’s been activity there recently.” 

“We’re going in?” Sarah asks, tilting her head at Natasha jokingly. “Aren’t you supposed to be retired?” 

Natasha just smirks and switches to Polish. “Aren’t you?” 

“Yes, Walker, does Chuckie know you’re here?” Carina asks, looking amused.

“Of course he does,” Sarah snaps. “He just...thinks we’re having a girls weekend.” 

Zondra grins. “We are. Less mani-pedis, though. More kicking in doors.” 

“We leave in an hour, agents,” Natasha tells them. “Hydrate and gear up.” 

*****

“How are you since you’ve been back?” Zondra asks as they strap in on the jet.

Natasha shrugs and looks at the other woman with a raised eyebrow. “I’m fine.” 

Zondra shakes her head. “Nobody believes that.” 

“Well,” Natasha says thoughtfully. “Fake it til you make it, right? As long as I’m busy, I’m fine.” 

“How’s Barnes?” Carina asks as she straps in as well. “I heard you were taking some weekend pleasure trips to Wakanda.” 

“Barnes is good,” Natasha rolls her eyes. 

“In bed?” Carina smirks. “Good in bed?” 

“What is with everybody?” Natasha snaps. “Just because I happen to have a sexual relationship does not mean it’s open season to act like the pep squad in a 90’s teen comedy.” 

Zondra wrinkles her nose. “Do I look like pep squad material to you? I was strictly lacrosse. I coulda gone pro if the Company hadn’t made me an offer.” 

“Nobody believes that,” Sharon snorts. 

“Oh no,” Sarah chimes in as she takes a seat. “When we first started out - years ago - she went undercover as a college lacrosse player. She won that team like nine games.” 

“Such a jock,” Natasha teases. “I was more into dance.” 

“Equestrian club,” Carina tells them. “I was a horse whisperer.” 

“Soccer,” Sharon says. “And student government.” 

“To the surprise of no one,” Carina smirks. “Nerd.” 

“Oh no, you wanna talk about nerd, you ask Walker what her thing was,” Zondra chuckles. 

All eyes turn to the blonde, who shrugs sheepishly.

“Violin.” 

The other women erupt into laughter and shocked cries. 

“Okay, that’s gotta be a lie,” Natasha says. 

“It’s not!” Sarah cries. “I played the violin! I was good!” 

“That is so nerdy,” Sharon marvels. 

“So was I,” Sarah says, lifting her chin. “And I was fine just as I was back then.”

“You were not, I have seen the photos,” Carina snorts. 

“Don’t listen to Carina, she’s just mad that the CIA made you hotter than her,” Zondra teases. 

Natasha rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “Is this what the entire flight is gonna be like?” 

“Possible,” Sarah tells her. 

“Likely,” Sharon adds. “I shoulda brought more coffee.” 

***** 

Predictably, Siberia is cold, and the inside of the lab they’re checking out feels even colder. 

“Nothing here but a buncha defunct machinery,” Zondra comments, turning back to Natasha and Sharon. “Is this the place Zemo dragged Barnes to before the Snap?”  
Sharon takes a deep breath, looking around. “It could be.” 

“What are we even looking for?” Carina asks. 

“You’ll know it when you see it,” Natasha tells them. “Just keep looking.” 

Sarah frowns and moves closer to Zondra. “You get the feeling Widow isn’t telling us something?” 

“I always have that feeling,” Zondra mutters. “What do you think it is this time?” 

“Could be anything,” Sarah shrugs. “There’s a staircase down into an underground level. Wanna check it out?” 

Zondra nods, following Sarah to the staircase and down into the lower level. Neon overhead lights flip on with their movement, and flicker as they look around. 

“Ten bucks says Hill had nothing to do with this job,” Zondra comments as she looks around, spotting rotted, half-frozen corpses inside prison cells. 

“She would have been at breakfast this morning,” Sarah agrees as she walks ahead. “There’s a lab at the end of the hall.” 

Zondra follows her, still keeping an eye out, slowly pulling her gun from its holster as she joins Walker at the door to the lab. 

The amount of disarray is excessive, with broken tools and cracked chemistry beakers strewn about the tables and floor. The hanging light flickers just as badly as the overheads in the hallway. 

Zondra slips past Sarah into the room, looking around carefully. “So the question is, was this place abandoned before the Snap or because of the Snap?” 

Sarah follows, looking at the walls for any clues. “No calendars...no clocks on the walls…”

Zondra wanders around the room as well, stopping only when she gets to a corner with the smallest cryochamber she’s ever seen. Like most of the Russian and Hydra-era chambers, there is a glass window at the top of it, letting the outside world see in, if only at the face of whomever is inside. 

She frowns deeply as she stares at the face of a young child. 

“Walker. I think I found whatever Widow’s been looking for.” 

Sarah frowns and walks over, following her gaze, before slowing tapping the comm in her ear. “Natasha? You’re gonna want to get down here.” 

***** 

“You wanna tell us why we really came here?” Sharon asks.

The cryochamber has been manhandled onto a lab table, and the five of them stand around it, four of them looking expectantly at Natasha. 

She closes her eyes and blows out a breath before starting to explain. 

“Years ago. A lot of years ago...I was assigned a long-term mission, undercover in Upstate New York as a young wife. And the man who was undercover as my husband was James Barnes.” 

The room goes silent, everyone waiting for her to continue. 

“He was ‘The Asset,” she goes on. “But over time...as we got deeper into our cover, his memories started to come back, and he was James. He hated everything he’d been forced to do. He wanted to die until I talked him out of it. We-we were...” She goes quiet for a moment, swallowing. “So we came up with a plan to run away together. To disappear.” 

“And you got caught,” Carina says softly. 

“We finished out the assignment, and...yeah. When we came back here to Russia, we got caught.” Natasha closes her eyes. “They violently wiped his memory, and they threw him back in cryo...and they made me pay for trying to run. Barnes had an excuse, he wasn’t Russian to begin with, but me…” 

“Oh, Nat,” Sharon says sympathetically. 

Natasha shakes her head. “I was pretty out of it for most of the torture. Dissociated. Years later, when the Winter Soldier ghosted after Hydra was weeded out of SHIELD, I started to hear things through backchannels. That the Russians had a new initiative.” She looks at the chamber again. “And in the back of my head, I had a bad feeling about what they had done.” 

“What are we looking at here, Nat?” Sarah asks. 

“I can’t be certain until we open this thing up,” she tells them. “But I think we might be looking at the genetically engineered baby of the Winter Soldier and the Black Widow.” 

*****   
MIT’s biochemistry lab is surprisingly easy to get into.

Much to Bruce Banner’s chagrin. 

He stops after flipping on the lights. Sitting at his lab tables are Sarah Walker, Zondra Rizzo, Carina Miller, Sharon Carter and Natasha Romanoff. He tenses up, adjusting the harness on his ever-injured arm as he realizes that there’s a sixth addition: 

A small cryochamber, settled on his messy desk.

He grimaces and looks at them all. “Okay. I’ll bite. What’s going on?” 

“There’s a baby in the cryotube,” Sharon says. “We need your help getting it out.” 

Bruce stares at them all, frowning deeply. “Uh...what?” 

“Hydra baby,” Carina tells him. “Possibly.” 

He steps over to the chamber slowly, looking down into the window. The face inside is sweet, and clearly that of a child under the age of four. With the glass’s blue tint it’s hard for Bruce to make out anything else, but he takes a breath and turns back to the spies that surround him. “Before I do anything, I need an explanation, and I need to know everything there is to know about the kid and the tube.” 

Natasha swallows and comes forward, holding out a thin folder. “This is all we have. Pieced together from Hydra defectors of and the base we found him in.” 

Bruce takes it and puts on his glasses. He reads through it quietly, unfazed by the group watching him. When he’s done, he shakes his head. “So what you’re telling me...is that they took a your DNA, and Barnes’ DNA, and they bio-engineered a baby, that they were going to then raise to be the ultimate killing machine.” 

“They realized when he was created that he hadn’t inherited any of the serum Barnes was given,” Natasha tells him. 

“And they had every intention of testing serums on him to make him into what they wanted,” Bruce finishes, looking down at the file. “This says he was put on ice when the Winter Soldier disappeared after the Triskelion fell. They wanted to get Barnes back before they started drug trials.” 

They stand in silence for a long moment before Bruce takes a breath. 

“I wanna help. And I will. I can’t promise anything though, Nat. He’s so young, he may not survive being unfrozen. But the best chance he’s got is if we take him to Tony.” 

Natasha crosses her arms and looks away unhappily. 

“That’s not what you wanted to hear, I know,” Bruce says. “But he’s got the brains and the tech we need to help this kid. Otherwise, he’s a total goner.” He turns to Sarah next. “We’ll need your husband, too. All sciencey hands on deck, here.” 

Sarah nods. “I’ll give Chuck a call and ask him to fly in.” 

Natasha looks down, her arms tightening at her chest as Bruce walks up to her to rest his good hand on her shoulder. 

“We’re gonna do everything we can, Natasha.” 

She nods, and rests her hand on top of his.

***** 

“You shoulda told me you were going to get him,” Clint says bluntly as he points a finger at Natasha. 

Bruce had called in Tony, who had then told Rhodey and Steve. Steve told Thor and Sam. Rhodey told Carol. 

Nobody will own up to telling Clint (but everyone knows Thor did it).

“You’re just going to have to live with the fact that I didn’t,” Natasha tells him. “You’ve got your own headaches right now, Barton. You didn’t need mine.”

“Your headaches are our headaches,” Steve reminds her as they step into Tony’s lab at Stark Tower. “You know that.” 

“You’re retired,” Natasha reminds him. “Where’s Zondra?” 

“She and Sarah took Maggie shopping,” Steve says. 

“Hey, guys,” Chuck Bartowski grins as he slides his chair away from his laptop. “Long time no see.” 

“That’s because you were snapped out by Thanos,” Clint reminds him. “What do we got?” 

“This thing is ancient,” Chuck tells him, getting to his feet and stepping over to the crytube. “Mid-eighties at the latest. On-brand with the tech they used for Barnes.” 

“Speaking of, shouldn’t he be here for this?” Steve asks, looking at Natasha. “This kid is-” 

“Not his problem right now,” Natasha cuts him off. “And I don’t want to make it his problem if that’s not what he wants.” 

“What do you want?” Steve asks gently. 

Natasha doesn’t respond.

Thankfully for her, she doesn’t have to, as Tony and Bruce walk in. 

“What’s the read on this thing, Chuckie?” Tony asks as he walks over to Chuck’s laptop.

“Old,” Chuck tells him. “Super duper old, so we’ll need to be careful. It’s not booby-trapped, so that’s at least good.” 

“There was danger of it being booby-trapped?” Clint asks, squinting at them. 

“Soviet-era technology?” Chuck asks, lifting his eyebrows. “Those guys were all about ‘you can pry this technology we’ve created from our cold dead fingers but good luck getting it to work after it’s burst into flames in my melted fingers.’”

Tony blinks at Chuck. 

Chuck grimaces at him. 

“Why don’t you work for me?” Tony asks, narrowing his eyes. 

“Because I have a mess of sensitive government secrets in my head, and if I told my superiors at the CIA I was leaving to work for Tony Stark, they’d throw me in an underground bunker forever.” 

“Huh.” 

“Task at hand, Fellas,” Steve reminds them.

“What’s the plan?” Chuck asks. 

“Well, the chamber is completely sealed off,” Bruce explains before flipping up an old control panel on the crytube carefully. “But there’s a hole here you can plug an oxygen tank in, and according to Nat’s file there’s a sequence of numbers you can use on the keypad to dethaw the chamber before opening it. Once it’s melted and the kid is breathing, we’ll need to get it into the quarantine cage, and then somebody’s gonna have to throw on a hazmat suit to physically open it.” 

Clint frowns, confused. “He’s a baby.” 

Chuck shakes his head. “Soviet technology. Cold dead hands, remember? It’s possible they infected the poor little guy with something and we won’t know until he’s out.” 

“Yep, we gotta be smart about this one,” Tony agrees. He turns to Chuck and Bruce. “Rock paper scissors for the hazmat suit?” 

“I’ll do it,” Natasha snaps. 

“Nat, you won’t know what you’re looking for,” Bruce tells her gently. 

“So tell me,” Natasha demands. “This is my mess, Bruce.” 

Steve frowns and rests a hand on her arm. “A word?” 

She deflates and follows him from the group. 

“I’m fine, Rogers.” 

“No, you’re not,” Steve says gently. “How could you be? After everything we’ve been through - after everything you’ve been through, to now be faced with something like this is...it’s huge, Natasha.” 

She looks away. 

“You don’t need me to tell you this, but you did the right thing, getting the kid; bringing him here,” Steve tells her. “But it’s been less than a year since we brought everybody back. Since you gave your life to bring everybody back.” He grins sadly. “I have some experience with sacrificing your life for the greater good and unexpectedly living through it.” 

“I wouldn’t be back if it weren’t for you,” Natasha points out. “You ever think you shoulda just let me die?” 

“Not for a second,” Steve says softly. 

She huffs and shrugs. “I guess...I guess I’m still a little frayed.” 

“And that’s okay,” Steve assures her. “Normal, even. And now all this? Jesus.” 

“I knew about him,” she admits. “Back when I left you and Sam in that cemetery over Fury’s grave. I knew about this.” 

“That’s where you went?” Steve asks. “To try and find him?” 

“No sign back then,” Natasha says, looking off in the distance. “I’d heard rumors, but there was no trace. But now I got him. I have him here. And...what am I gonna do with a baby? And you’re right, what am I gonna tell Barnes?” 

“I know you,” Steve says firmly. “I know you really well. And I know that you’re gonna do the right thing, whatever that looks like. And we’re all behind you. All of us. Look at this assembly of nuts and weirdos. We’re here...we’re doing this with you because we’re behind you.” 

“All except Thor?” Natasha jokes.

“He’s outta town,” Steve grins. “Somethin’ about his Tree friend in space.” 

“Nuts and weirdos is right.” 

Steve takes a breath. “Why don’t you let me go in? My hands are pretty steady these days.” 

“Yeah, Zondra’s mentioned,” Natasha teases with a smirk.

Steve turns a little red. “She tell you I told her I loved her?” 

“Nope. But now that I know I’m never gonna stop teasing her, or you.” 

“Yeah,” he huffs. “So?” 

Natasha nods. “Yeah.” 

***** 

Steve slowly keys in the number sequence and stands back, rubbing his hands over the sides of his hazmat suit. He’s not used to wearing one; the serum protects him from all sorts of things, but better safe than dead, he acknowledges. 

The cryochamber gives a short hiss as it opens, and reaches down to open it up on the little boy. He’s much younger than Maggie, and sickly-looking. 

Steve reaches down and lifts him up onto his arms, gazing down at him. “Okay,” he says, looking through the glass quarantine cube and at his friends. “What do you need me to do?” 

“Just hold still,” Bruce instructs, as he and Tony work quickly, using Tony’s holographic computer to run scan after scan. Chuck stands with them, reading the results carefully, while Natasha and Clint stand back, both looking impatient. 

“So?” Natasha asks, watching both Steve and the baby and then the scientists. 

“So far, he’s got a clean bill of health,” Tony says. “Weak and malnourished but infection and disease-free. No surprises on the insides either.” 

“What does that mean?” Clint asks. 

“Nobody made him swallow a bomb,” Bruce tells them. 

“Jesus,” Clint huffs. 

Steve looks down at the kid and grins a little, stroking the soft red hair on the top of his head, marveling at how much he looks like Bucky in the face. “Hey, little guy. I think you’re gonna be just fine.” 

The kid, for his part, wiggles, gives a little cough, and cries. 

“Oh yeah,” Steve chuckles. “Nice healthy set’a lungs like that. Just fine.” 

***** 

Tony swivels in his chair in the conference room next door ot the lab. “So now what happens?” 

Steve’s still holding the kid, who is chowing down on the contents of a bottle of formula while Nataasha watches like a hawk. He paces the room around the chairs where everyone else is sitting. 

“That’s up to Nat,” Bruce says. “Technically, he’s her kid.” 

Natasha says nothing. 

“Well, there’s options,” Clint says, taking her hand. “Laura and I could take him.” 

“Laura would kill you,” Natasha points out softly, squeezing his hand. “Three was her limit.” 

“To carry,” Clint argues. “We never talked about taking one in.” 

“What about New Asgard?” Bruce asks. “Bet there’s plenty of nice Asgardian couples who would love to have a new baby.” 

“Possibly,” Natasha nods. 

“Pep and I could take him,” Tony offers. 

“Isn’t Pepper pregnant again?” Clint asks. “Seems like a lot.” 

“Steve could take him,” Tony says. 

“I would love to,” Steve admits. “But I don’t think Maggie’s quite ready to have a baby brother and lose half my attention, and Zondra…” 

“Can barely look you in the eyes when you get mushy?” Natasha finishes. 

“We’re figuring it out,” Steve says. 

“The blind leading the blind,” Natasha grumbles. 

“Then maybe,” Steve says, walking over and kneeling down to settle the kid in her arms. “You should take him.” 

She fumbles a little, tensing up and looking down at the baby before looking at all of them. 

Bruce smiles at her kindly. “Just cuz you can’t have one, doesn’t mean you can’t...y’know. Have one.” 

“I am not cut out for motherhood,” Natasha says. “At all.” 

“Do you wanna be?” Steve asks, looking at her, still kneeling.

“I-” 

She looks around at all of them and then looks down at the baby again. 

“What am I gonna tell Barnes?”


End file.
